We all know it. We've collectively messed up the environment, and that, people, includes ourselves.
The polar ice is melting. The oceans are full of plastic. Animals are going extinct. Cancer rates are not abating.
We are staring disaster in the face. Well, actually, we are driving a billion cars right towards it.
We are trying hard, trying valiantly, to turn it all around. Well, mostly, we are talking hard, talking valiantly, about turning it all around.
We can keep talking, or we can act. Of course, acting can be difficult. Changing the way we live, the way we get to work, the way we work, the way we entertain, the way we produce and process waste, changing it all can be difficult. It's why we've mostly talked. To further complicate things, some people are ready for that change, while others aren't.
It is in consideration of these facts that the idea of Green Hubs, as a policy prescription for Canada, becomes cogent.
What are Green Hubs?
Put simply, they are towns and cities in which a super-majority of the people vote to proceed down the road of radical change, resulting in ultra-sustainable living spaces that act as pace-setters for the rest of us.
A town or city would receive the designation of a Green Hub after a campaign culminating in a successful vote, followed by the execution of a multi-point plan that would see far reaching changes in the design of spaces, the use rather than the disposal of waste, transportation infrastructure, and so on. Best practices from other places would have to be incorporated. That designation would then have to be maintained. Funding would be made available at the federal and other levels, along with incentives and disincentives that spur change, including those that work through the taxation regime.
The resulting experimentation, documented best practices and new technologies would benefit Canada writ large, as well as the global community. As an added benefit, we would have crossed the Rubicon. The idea, for instance, of blocks and blocks of a downtown core being dedicated to pedestrian and bicycle traffic, or of all plastics in use being bio-degradable, would no longer be deemed too difficult to consider. The excuses would be gone, the path forward would be clear.
Your comments, and ideas on this idea, are welcome. The Green Hub is a policy position of iCitizen, and in the name of all authors and subscribers, a position that will be advocated before Canadian governments - federal, provincial and municipal. So, join us, the time for change is now, and you are that change. Your time, is now.